So, I actually got my gold ticket for this event last year, shortly after they initially went on sale at the start of the Marvel event in 2022. I did think I’d been one of the first people to buy the ticket…and while I did get the lowest number I ever have for a Starfury event, it wasn’t quite as low as I was expecting. Not a disappointment, but more of a, ‘Wow, so many other people got there before I did!’
This event was a small one, with the amount of attendees being about 250 and the total guests being five. There was supposed to be a sixth guest attending, but unfortunately, the flight he was meant to be on was cancelled and the airline refused to refund the flight cost. The small event was a lot of fun, feeling far more intimate and cozy with such a small amount of people.
Since I had a gold ticket, I got to be part of the meet and greet reception, which had all of gold attendees getting to meet each guest and spend about five minutes with them. Groups gathered around a circular table with one empty seat, and the guest would come and sit in the empty seat and chat to us. I somehow ended up with all but one of the guests sitting next to me, which was really nice! And Nick Blood recognised me…I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one, although I have now met him on four separate occasions, with one of those being the Marvel event last year.
I only had one photo op over the weekend, on the Saturday, with Adrianne Palicki, who plays Bobbi Morse in Agents of SHIELD. She’s also appeared in The Orville, Supernatural and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, along with numerous other roles.
I also only got two 10×8 autographs, one from Adrianne and one from Katy O’Brian, whose appeared in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and The Mandalorian, along with various other roles. In fact, Katy was only there for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. Due to a change in the filming schedule of her current project, she had to leave by 11am on the Sunday.
I don’t normally go to many of the talks, but at this convention, I went to all of the guest talks on the Saturday, which were fun…if difficult to sit through (for me personally). Lyrica Okano, who appears in Marvel’s Runaways and plays Nico, had so much energy and was so lively…I loved how she took every question in her stride and answered even the most bizarre one about Doctor Who, that she’d never heard of before. And it was a lot of fun to hear about Jeff Ward’s character on Agents of SHIELD…and I loved that Katy ‘offered’ to answer someone’s phone when their boss called. And Nick and Adrianne were a lot of fun in their talk. Nick, of course, has so much of the Starfury energy and really gives off the vibe that he wants to be there. (I’m not saying that the others didn’t, but to the best of my knowledge, he’s the only one who, last year, came all of the way from Scotland and then back again for one day of the con).
One thing that I also thought was exceptionally good was that there was a young girl in the talks, who asked each of the actors what advice they’d give to someone who wanted to be an actor (her). All of them were completely genunine and honest in their answers, instead of brushing the question off, or ‘dumbing down’ their answers because they were speaking to a child. Nick, especially, gave a response that was incredibly thoughtful and sincere.
Starfury is incredible value for money…and one of the main things is that many guests are included in autographs, even for regular tickets. At this event, all five of the guests’ autographs were included in both gold and regular passes, which was awesome. You can see below my shiny autograph card, which is a must-have for if you want to collect your autographs.
As you can see, although it’s technically a check list for the guests’ PA to tick off, most of them do things a bit more interesting than just the check mark. And I didn’t realise until the Sunday that one of the PAs had done a sad face for Gregg Sulkin! (He was the guest who unfortunately couldn’t make it last minute).
I was extremely happy with my included autographs. I always like to get my convention booklet signed, since it fits very nicely into a plastic wallet to go into my (one of five) autograph folders. Both Katy and Lyrica had extremely long autograph queues; Katy because everyone was keen to get hers on the Saturday, due to her leaving early on the Sunday…Lyrica because, well…I’ll let the autograph speak for itself.
Lyrica’s was actually the last autograph I got on the Saturday and I said to her, ‘You can have the whole of the front!’, and she took it. Which was awesome. All of the guests were lovely people to meet, but I saw Lyrica write a lot on everyone’s autograph they had…which I’m sure wasn’t very comfortable by the time the event ended.
And I mentioned that Katy was leaving early, but in spite of that, she took her time talking to everyone…asking me if I’d seen the Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. I said yes and that Jonterra was my favourite character, which I think (hope) made her happy.
These were not, in fact, all of the autographs I got from this event. I mentioned before that Multiverse was a very small convention…and because of that, the organiser very kindly offered everyone another photo to get signed on the Sunday, by the four guests who were still there…and also promised that the same photo could be signed as an ‘extra’ by Katy at any future Starfury event she might attend.
There really aren’t any other convention companies who would give you an extra autograph from the majority of the attending guests! I really can’t recommend Starfury enough, because while it looks more expensive on the surface…it really works out as much better value for money. Not only are you paying for the whole weekend convention, but you get all of the talks included, plus access to the evening parties, and autographs from the majority of the guests included.
Book for Starfury. You won’t be disappointed. I’m hoping to attend Witchbomb this year. I did also want to attend Cross Roads 7, but I don’t think that will happen for me. But Witchbomb is almost a certainty…just a few more days until I can book!
Ink of Blood 